


Not Alone

by TiedyedTrickster



Series: I am Hogyoku [6]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen, I am weak against lonely characters, I want them to have friends and be happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-09
Updated: 2016-12-09
Packaged: 2018-09-07 13:13:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8802172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiedyedTrickster/pseuds/TiedyedTrickster
Summary: Many beings desire power above all else, but Starrk wishes to be weak. Or, more accurately, he dreams of companions...





	

Starrk doesn’t move when the finger pokes him. It’s probably just Lilynette again, trying to get him to move, and the crook of the tree he’s nestled in is comfortable. She’ll have to work harder than that to make him move-

He pauses. Frowns. Lilynette’s reiatsu is some distance away, digging for the corpses of hollow lizards in the mounds of sand and dead hollows that surround them. There are no other spiritual pressures nearby, but something had definitely just poked him. He opens one eye.

A young woman is watching him. Her hair is white and her skin is pale, and her thin robe is washed pale by the moon. Thus the only true colour to her is the blue-violet fire dancing in her pale eyes and the collar at her throat, which is an especially vivid red even in the eternal moonlight of Hueco Mundo. She is watching him intently and smiles when she sees him looking back. “Hello.”

Her voice is strange, full of ripples and echoes, and the sound of it brings Lilynette scurrying over, aggressive and growling.

“Who are you?! What do you want!” She launches a kick attack at the stranger and, well, that’s another hollow dead.

Except it isn’t, because the young woman catches Lilynette’s foot and easily uses the girl’s momentum to twist and guide her around so that Lilynette ends up in a very surprised heap on the ground.

The stranger walks over and prods her with one foot. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” Lilynette snarls, scrabbling to her feet.

“Not burned?”

“Of course not!”

“And you?” the stranger turns and, to Starrk’s shock, cups his cheek with one hand. He freezes at the contact, because no one’s ever touched him other than Lilynette, as far as he can remember, and his other half tends to be fairly violent unless the aching loneliness becomes too strong again and she comes to curl up at his side like the pup she appears to be. “Does this hurt?”

“No.” it’s the first word he’s spoken in awhile, and his voice comes out a little rusty.

The stranger beams again. “I knew it! My name is Hogyoku – will you be my friend?”

Starrk stares at her and considers pinching himself, because this sort of thing never happens when he’s awake. Lilynette, however, is more vocal, as always. “Hey, don’t ignore me!”

Hogyoku blinks and angles her body so she’s facing the smaller arrancar more. “I wasn’t ignoring you.”

“You were talking to Starrk, trying to steal him from me!”

Hogyoku tilts her head to the side. “No, I asked if you wanted to be my friend, and I was addressing both halves of you. I did not realize you prefer to be addressed individually. After all, aren’t the two of you the same person?”

 _That_ gets Starrk’s other eye open, because even those hollows that managed to last a short time in their presence never figured out his connection with Lilynette, let alone their dual nature. “How did you know?” he asks, curious enough to sit up and pay proper attention for once.

Hogyoku smiles at him. “You have the same heart.”

“Psh, stupid,” Lilynette sneers, covering nerves with distain, “We’re _hollows_ , we don’t _have_ a heart!”

“You do,” Hogyoku says, polite but firm, “You’ve just forgotten them.” She droops a little at the thought. “This is a very sad place – I can hear dreams screaming all around me, begging to be heard, but no one else does, not even the dreams that are their own. And if I give them what they truly want, the balance will break – too may free at once…” she looks despondent for a moment, then brightens. “That’s why I’m not listening to them at the moment! But I can still hear your dreams, because they echo mine – a friend we cannot hurt.” She offers a hand to Starrk, the other to Lilynette. “Can we be friends?”

Starrk eyes her warily. She doesn’t smell like a hollow, but she doesn’t exactly smell like a shinigami, either, or a human, and her body language is completely fearless. And she is strong, showing no signs of pain or discomfort, when by this point even Vasto Lordes are usually dead from his and Lilynette’s sheer spiritual pressure. And much as he treasures her, Lilynette is him, just as he is her, and they both want more than that… He reaches out and takes Hogyoku’s hand. “Anything you ask, we will do.”

“Anything within reason,” Lilynette amends, shooting Starrk a dirty look as she takes Hogyoku’s other hand.

Hogyoku beams at them. “This is enough for me.”

Life changes after this. Hogyoku is not always there, but she comes often, sometimes to play with Lilynette, sometimes to curl up next to Starrk with quiet murmurings or comfortable silence. Lilynette shows her how to find the corpses of hollow lizards beneath the sands, though Hogyoku gives all she finds to the smaller girl. In exchange for these lessons, she teaches them both how to hide their great strength, so they do not automatically kill any who ventures within their presence, but she will not make them weaker, though she admits she could when Starrk asks her about it directly, and looks away when he asks why she won’t.

“Because I have a heart now, too,” she says quietly, “And that means sometimes I have desires and dreams of my own. You are the only ones I can touch who are not my master – this will not change. I cannot stop burning the way you stop crushing, only hide myself in cloth. So I ask you… please, indulge me a little, in this matter.”

Starrk relents, because the lessons seem to be working – other hollows wander nearer and farther, though most keep their distance still. And when the lessons of hidden strength become superfluous, Hogyoku brings new ideas, new tricks that Lilynette loves. Starrk has the better memory for them, but the smaller arrancar is fascinated by the way a string of silly words and numbers mixed with a drop of reiatsu can result in fire dancing between her hands, or a barrier so the hollow lizards can’t run away as she learns to hunt live ones, or all sorts of other things. She likes the fire ones best, though, loves the brightness and the colour they bring to the eternal black and silver of Hueco Mundo, how it dances and sparks and bites back if she pokes at it.

And Starrk must admit a secret fondness for the colour it brings even when his eyes are closed, warming the backs of his lids. He’s changing, he realizes abruptly one eternal night. They both are. Lilynette is growing calmer with this new consistent source of outside stimulation. As for Starrk himself… Hogyoku does not request he open his eyes or stop lying about as he prefers to do so, but she does converse with him, make him think. It’s somewhat irksome, to be honest, because at times he’s beginning to find himself bored when she stays away too long. He hadn’t realized that he craves stimulation as much as his other half does, simply in a different manner – mental as opposed to physical.

As for Hogyoku, she seems happy enough as long as she can get plenty of physical contact in, gentle brushes and pats and touches, utterly alien to the way most hollows seem to interact with each other, though wrestling with Lilynette is by no means off the agenda. And then, one night, she appears in her silent way, beaming, and grabs both their hands.

“Come on! I think it’s a good time now – they’re ready and you’ve learned enough and won’t kill anyone by mistake now!”

And she pulls them into the vivid brightness of Soul Society, into the midst of a gaping circle of shinigami, waving and beaming as everyone else blinks.

“I nominate Coyote Starrk and Lilynette Gingerbuck as the new Co-Commanders of the Kido Corps!”

Things get shockingly interesting very quickly after that, what with Starrk and Lilynette both being somewhat overwhelmed by the maelstrom of colour and sound and smells that is this new world, along with the minor little issue of _WHAT DO YOU **MEAN** THERE’S A LEVEL OF HOLLOW ABOVE VASTO LORDE AND WHY IN HEAVEN’S NAME WOULD YOU THINK BRINGING THEM HERE IS A GOOD IDEA AND WHAT THE HELL YOU CAN’T NOMINATE HOLLOWS FOR SHINIGAMI OFFICES, KUCHIKI, GET YOUR JEWEL IN ORDER!!!_ And then there’s the matter of learning a new culture and somehow actually getting talked into taking this strange new job and Hogyoku admitting she wanted to be able to spend more time with them and apologizing for being sneaky and everyone working at convincing Lilynette that, no, really, clothes, please, and also, yes, she is the co-commander you want to talk to if you want something done this year, yes we know the other one looks more impressive and powerful, this one actually does stuff.

Even after the fuss has died down Starrk still doesn’t get to nap as much as he’d like anymore, because suddenly he has responsibilities, ones Lilynette won’t let him wriggle out of, and people who are absolutely terrified of him and everything he represents, but who are also doing their best to learn and are willing to try because Hogyoku asked them to. And then there’s Kyoraku dropping by with sake, and Ukitake coming to discuss strategy and actually try and learn more about how hollows, and the little pink-haired girl who likes to tussle with Lilynette, and of course Hogyoku still dropping in to play and sneak naps with him, and sometimes it feels like the hole in his chest is shrinking, filled up with all these new experiences and new people… new friends. It’s a strangely warm feeling, one he minds far less than he might have expected to.

Because, crazy and chaotic and strange as it is, there is one thing this new life if most definitively not, and that is lonely.

 

**Author's Note:**

> For those wondering about the red ‘collar,’ it’s technically a leather choker these days, not the actual one from when Rukia nearly died, but Hogyoku always wears something fitted and red around its neck – a casual reminder to Soul Society about how it nearly done messed up BIG that one time.
> 
> Hogyoku didn’t exactly go looking for Starrk – it set out with the intention ‘someone I cannot burn by mistake,’ and he’s the one it found, with the added advantage that he joined the Espada AFTER Aizen left the Gotei 13 in the original storyline, so he hasn’t been exposed to Mr. Manipulator in this universe. I don’t know what will happen to the other Arrancar in this universe, but Starrk and Lilynette are the only two I can honestly see fitting into Soul Society as they are – they don’t act like typical hollows, and I’ve always gotten the impression that their power is self-sustaining at this point, so they don’t need to consume other souls. That is, of course, just my take on things, but I’m the writer, so! ;)
> 
> But, yeah, Starrk’s the one who fit here, which is why no Grimmjow, Ulquiora, Nel, or Harribel. Feel free to imagine whatever sort of destiny you like for them in this universe.
> 
> This is the last segment I wrote for this universe, and thus this little universe is complete with it. As for what would have happened had I continued… a more peaceful world, one that disregards all the future arcs in the manga and anime. Trust grows stronger, friendships develop, help is given and received. Tosen is found out and suitably punished for his plans and the help he gave Aizen. Something’s done about Mayuri, too, because that guy shouldn’t be in a position of power or running loose. This is my world of happy endings for Bleach, so, whatever the future holds for the characters here, it’s probably going to be good. I hope you’ve enjoyed it, and thank-you for reading.


End file.
